s. Trounce?"

"Just what I tell him," said the matron, cheerfully, for she knew the
value of cheerfulness on the spirits of a patient. "If he makes up his
mind to it, he'll soon be about again."

"It's astonishing what we can do when we set our teeth hard, and go for
a thing," continued Paul, adopting her cheerful tone and manner.

"That's what you did when you came to me and saved my life. Oh,
Percival, it was terrible!"

And the thin hand went to the eyes with a gesture of pain.

"Terrible! Hooking you out of that river? That's what I call beastly
ingratitude. I think it's one of the best things I ever did in my life."

"No, no," cried the boy quickly; "don't think me ungrateful. I couldn't
bear that. You don't think me ungrateful?"

"Of course not. It's only my stupid way of putting things. All you've
got to do now is to forget about the river, and everything connected
with it. You're now on dry land--in a nice, warm, comfortable bed, where
you needn't trouble about anything except getting well again."

"Are the other fellows all right--Plunger and Moncrief, I mean?"

"Right? Rather! Going stronger than ever, especially Plunger."

"I'm glad of that. And--and the savages. Who were they?" asked Hibbert,
with a shudder.

"Can't you guess?" smiled Paul. "Nobody very dreadful. Three or four of
the fellows of your Form--Bember, Baldry, Sedgefield, Viner."

"I might have guessed it; but then I'm not like other boys. I'm such a
coward--coward. I've fought against it so hard, but I can't get over it.
I've tried to be brave--as brave as you are----"

"Hush! Don't talk of bravery. You're forgetting the sand-pit. Don't put
me on stilts, for I could never walk in them. We're just what God makes
of us. There are plenty of thorns and thistles about, heaps of 'em; but
not many sensitive plants. That's what you are Hibbert--a beautiful,
sensitive plant."

"Ah, you don't know what I am. If only I could tell you--if only I could
tell you. You would hate me--hate me. Yes, Percival--hate me. You can
call me a beautiful, sensitive plant, while all the time I'm a beastly
hypocrite. Oh, why didn't you let me die--why didn't you let me go down
in the river? Why did you save me?"

He spoke with a sudden outburst of energy, raising himself, in his
feverish excitement on his elbow.

"Come, come! Master Percival will have to leave you, if you take on that
way," said the matron.

"Yes, I think I'd better go now and come again